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Besieged Rishon
The first emergency postal service started in the town of Rishon LeZion (First to Zion), which lay only 9 miles southeast of Tel Aviv. At the time the town’s only connection to the rest of the world was through Tel Aviv and depended on a country road winding through scenic orange groves. As early as March 1948, postal service provided by the British for 50 mils per piece had degenerated to twice weekly. On April 5, Iraqi Irregulars attacked and took the town of Tel Litvinsky effectively taking control of the road and thereby laying siege to the town. The Town Council, led by then mayor, Dr Elyakina Ostashinsky, Z. Bleyer and Dr Rosner, proposed an emergency Daily Express Service using an “armored car” to break through the lines. A special committee of Dr Kurt Furst, Reuben Blau and Joseph Mintz was established and charged with establishing the postal services between Tel Aviv, Rishon LeZion and Nahalat Yehuda. Although referred to as the Armored Car Express Mail, more often than not, the delivery cars/trucks were not armored although always accompanied by armed Haganna escorts. The driver, Werner Fernbach, started each morning, exclusive of the Sabbath, from the Workers Kitchen in Rishon and drove through a constantly shifting path to the Pales Company in Tel Aviv. At first, service was provided only between Rishon and Tel Aviv, but on April 20, neighboring Nahalat Yehuda was included when mail was delivered to Rishon by bicyclist. The stamp designer, Eva Samuel had submitted 2 of the 5 designs considered (others were provided by Eva’s sister, Edith Samuel, as well as by Roman Ginsburg and Reuben Blau). The daily service carried a 40 mils per piece fee and was often accompanied by either a red EX sticker, a hand written EX or “Express” transliterated into Hebrew. The stamp was first issued on April 4, 1948 and was in use until May 6, four days after the Minhelet HaAm postage cancelling hand stamp had arrived. By May 12, all the remaining stores of the stamps were destroyed (the printing plate had been destroyed on April 6). Printed by Mercaz Press, the total release in sheets of 10 (two rows of 5 stamps) involved 12,000 stamps of which 2,000 were imperforate and the remainder were perforated at a rate of 11. Stamps were sold in books of 10 perforated sheets along with a partially cancelled imperforate sheet. In addition, ten sheets were set aside for use as official postage for the town council. For official use the standard 40 mils fee was reduced to 30. To reflect this, each stamp was notched with a triangular punch blotting out the 40 in the upper right corner. The selvedge of the sheet was stamped with the 2-line inscription “Local Council Rishon Le Zion Palestine” in both Hebrew (top) and English (bottom). These were available for the Council’s use on April 13, and the only know usage were the dates of April 25, 26 and 27 and May 2. The specialized cancellations for this service differed from those of the Minhelet HaAm. Each cancellation consists of a black 34-½ mm circle enclosing the city names above in Hebrew and below in English and separated by a rectangular box for the date. Both a Rishon and a Tel Aviv cancellation were applied to each piece of postage, but those coming from Nahalat Yehuda also bore a rectangular 16 x 38 mm frame enclosing the township’s name. Once the Minhelet HaAm cancelling stamp became available, these were discontinued. Interestingly, to celebrate Independence, some patriotic members of the town commissioned an unofficial canceller modeled after the Mandate cancellations but with a Magen David replacing the Iron Cross. This was offered but rejected by the postmaster of Rishon and therefore should be thought of as a private postmark. rishons.jpg|Stamps of Rishon LeTzion council.jpg|The altered stamps for Official Town Council use fdc.jpg|"First Day Cover" from Rishon LeTzion nahalat.jpg|"First Day Cover" of Nahalat Yehudah trial.jpg|Other submissions for the Rishon stamp The Stamp Sheet Interestingly, there are constant plate flaws in the series, as there was but one plate fabricated by Hatzinkographioth Hame’Ukhadoth Ltd of Tel Aviv. #No flaw #RI5HON flaw on bottom #hyphen over the Resh on the right border of the stamp #fold of flag bulges near soldier’s right elbow #Break in the A of Israel in the upper border #upper arm of Aleph in Yisrael (top border) is barely connected to body of Aleph and appears almost conjoined to neighboring Resh with a shorter than normal Yud #thickened U in armoured in the left border, with a round dot on the extreme right border #KISHON flaw on bottom #stamp has a break in the lower border of the portion of the flag closest to the pole #stamp has a break in the lower colored stripe of the portion of the flag furthest from the pole Section heading Write the second section of your article here.